The woman in question, Hayley Webster, posted her touching tale in a Twitter thread on Sunday (3 December), by saying, 'I'm going to write a thread about the nicest Christmas gift I ever received. I was nine years old. I think it cost the person who gave it to me about £1.50.'

Hayley, from Norfolk, went on to explain that her parents were living apart at the time with new partners, and that she spent much of the run-up to Christmas trying to distract her little sister from the family tension through a variety of sweet gestures, including decorating the five-year-old's packed lunch with tinsel and telling her festive bedtime stories.

Webster added that no one who seemed to notice how much she was doing for her sibling, except for her father's girlfriend...

She continued: 'One weekend, just before Christmas, she [the girlfriend] said to me, "You've made Christmas really magical for your sister, you really have." And I puffed up, all proud and happy. Then she said, "It seems such a shame nobody does that for you." I didn't really understand what she was saying.'

Webster then explained that she woke up later that week to find an envelope addressed to her waiting downstairs. It said: 'To Hayley. Have a lovely Christmas. Thank you for all your help. Lots of love from Santa's elves xxx.'

Inside was the sheet music for 'Walking in the Air', the theme song to The Snowman, which Webster revealed she had spent hours trying to teach herself on the piano after becoming enraptured with the film following its release that year.

'It felt like the first time somebody had actually SEEN me,' Webster wrote. 'It was the nicest thing, the loveliest, kindest, small, lovely thing,' she added. 'It made a difference to me, a huge difference. I remember it every year, every single year.'

She continued: 'That gift, that one small thing, taught me what it means to be noticed for who you are.

'It's something I try to do, not with gifts, but with actions. She taught me Christmas is nothing to do with showing people you love them with big money spends. For me, it will always be about giving people what they need; attention, kindness, love.

'And when that happens to me, when people do that for me, it literally lasts as warmth my whole life. Notice people. Show them they matter. It's the best advice I could ever give anyone. Not just at Christmas.'

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